Bob,
I did remove some roots, I would say 1-2 (tap roots) but they represented less than 20% of root mass.
The soil that I used was corse sand and Lava rock. Seemed more sand than the pot I removed it from but (to the novice) I thought it would be ok.
I water from the top every night, unless it is still moist (We have had some very cloudy day the last couple of weeks)
As for sun it is in the sun (6 hours) but as I mentioned above it has been very cloudy so I did not move it to the shade because I thought that whatever sun it could get might help it pull out of this funk.
I do not see any signs of infestation, like I said the plant seemed real health and ready to be repotted when I took it out of the original container.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
david